Mom buys iPhone from online seller, ends up with 2 bars of soap and loses $450

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ALLEN PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Samantha Powell, a Michigan woman, said she was just trying to buy her daughter an iPhone, when she ended up getting scammed.

A few weeks ago, Powell said she made a deal with a seller on the app ‘LetGo’. They communicated on the app and agreed on a price of $450.

Powell said she had saved money for six months in order to buy her daughter an iPhone before school started.

She agreed to meet the seller at an apartment complex in Allen Park. She had gone there with her husband, but when they exchanged the money and the iPhone box, Powell said the seller took off running. Her husband opened the box and found no iPhone, just two bars of soap.

“When he opened it, we were both dumbfounded. We were just staring at it: Did that just happen?” Powell told 7 Action News.

She said they tried going after the seller but she was gone.

They called police and also filed a police report. Powell said she heard the woman even went on Facebook and bragged about what she had done.

“She was pretty much saying haha thinking that she wasn’t going to get caught,” she said.

But she may not be laughing now. Powell said the seller used a fake name on ‘LetGo’, but had provided her phone number for the sale. That’s how police were able to identify her.

Powell said the person was an 18 year-old woman. Police said she has been ticketed and if she doesn’t show up for court, a warrant will be issued for her arrest.

Meanwhile, Powell said she hopes her story will help remind others to meet up at a police department for such a transaction. She has since gotten her daughter an iPhone off Craigslist. She said she met the seller at a local police department and had no problem.